A collision that
occurred on the 12th March between a passenger train
and an engine at the Victoria station of the London,
Brighton, and South Coast Railway, on which occasion one passenger was very seriously injured,
having had his skull fractured; a second was much
shaken; and the guard of the passenger train had his
thigh broken. It is hoped that no fatal results may ensue.

It appears that a passenger train from Croydon ran
into the north side of the Victoria station about 3.30
p.m. on No. 3 line, and as soon as it had stopped the
engine was uncoupled, ran ahead to the end of the
station, and then shunted back into what is called the
middle road or No. 4 line, and stopped, waiting for a
signal from the Eccleston Road signal box for permission to go out to No. 1 line, crossing in the act of
doing so Nos. 3 and 2 lines, for the purpose of backing
on to a line leading to the turntable, where the engine
was to be turned prior to its leaving for its next trip
at 4.11 p.m.

The engine driver and fireman who brought this
train into the station and on to No. 4 line were
relieved at 3.37 p.m. by another engine driver and
fireman, but they had not quitted the engine when the
signal was given for this engine to go to the turntable, two or three minutes after the relief had taken
place.

The engine had been standing on No. 4 line, about
30 yards east of the Eccleston Road signal box, 130
yards east of the points on No. 1 line, leading back to
the turntable, and 230 yards east of the junction signal
box (hole in the wall), at the entrance of the station
yard. The junction signalman works a low disc signal
that controls the coming out of trains from the station
on No. 1 line, and this low disc signal is about 30
yards west of the points leading to the turntable, and
only seven yards east of the point where an engine
standing on No. 1 line would foul a train running into
the station for No. 5 line, or that next to the north of the
cab stand platform. This .low disc signal, when at
danger, should not, therefore, be passed hy any engine
coming out from the station on No. 1 line, when requiring to go to the turntable, or it may run so far forward as to interfere with another train entering the
station by No. 5 line; and this is precisely what did
happen on the afternoon of the 12th March 1868.

The driver of the engine, who had just taken charge
of it from the other driver, put it in motion when he
got the signal from the Eccleston Road signal box,
and did not stop his engine until it had run past the
low disc signal, and had run so far beyond it as just to foul the road leading to No. 5 line, at the moment when
the 3.5 p.m. train from Sutton was entering the station
about 3.42 p.m. It is not quite certain that the light
engine had actually stopped when the collision occurred, but as it was travelling tender first, the tender
came in contact with the end of the buffer beam of the
Sutton train engine, breaking off a corner of it, then
in contact with a h01’8e box which was next to the engine, and subsequently damaged two of the steps of
a passenger carriage.

The Sutton train consisted of a tank engine, running with the wrong end in front, a horse box, containing two race horses and two persons riding in it,
a third-class carriage, with a break in the leading
compartment, two first-class, one second, and one
third-class carriage, making six vehicles altogether
without the engine.

The Sutton train was entering the station, it is
said, at the usual speed of about 10 miles an hour,
and when the tender came in contact with the horse
box, it tilted it over or damaged it in some way, 80
that as it was passing the Eccleston Road signal box,
107 yards further east, it came against it, was shattered
to pieces, breaking in the end of the signal box, and
some of the broken fragments of the body of the horse
box were carried against the leading compartment of
the third-c1ass carriage in which the guard was riding,
smashed it in, and seriously injured the guard. The
two passengers who were riding in the horse box
were both injured, and when the train stopped at the
platform they had been thrown or had jumped out.
The horses had their hind legs on the ballast and their
fore legs on the fioor of the horse box, between it and
the break carriage, and both had received several cnts,
but it is surprising that they were not more hurt.

The driver of the light engine, Charles Barber,
accounts for having run too far ahead, by saying that
he had been asking the other driver whether the engine was all right, and was looking into the fire; but
the real facts connected with this man were, that he
came into the station by a train from Battersea at
3.37 p.m., and immediately jumped on the light engine, whereas he should have been at the station at
3.30 p.m., when the train from Croydon was due;
and if he had been there he would have had plenty
of time to have made all the inquiries which are usual
and necessary when one engine driver relieves another,
before the light engine was signalled to leave No. 4
line. The collision was entirely due to a want of care
on this man's part in allowing the engine to run a few
yards too far ahead, and I do not see that any other
person is to blame. I understand he has been 25
years in the company's service, 12 years as a driver,
is well spoken of, and had only just received a premium for good conduct during the previous three
months.

He committed a mistake on this occasion, which the
best men may occasionally do, without any evil con-
sequences resulting from it; but I do not consider his
conduct so blameable as that of a driver who runs
past a danger signal at high speed.

But the trains into Victoria station are so numerous, and the practice which has been adopted of using
most of the lines for incoming and outgoing trains,
renders the spot where the collision occurred a very
dangerous one, owing to a sharp curve in the line that
materially limits the view from the west, and if it
were not for the manner in which the two signalmen
are controlled by the interlocking of points and signals
in the respective signal boxes, collisions would probably occur every week, if not oftener.

This collision would h!’ve taken place if there
had been a pair of facing points into a blind
siding immediately beyond the points leading to the
turntable, and locked, open to the blind siding by the
low disc signal when at “ anger," and although the introduction of such a siding will not remove the
dangers which attend shunting on No. 1 line when
trains arc entering the station, it will prevent a collision
with any trains proceeding to or from No• .5 line; and
I recommend that it may be constructed. The signal box at Eccleston Road bridge is about 3 If. 10in.
from the rails, and as the width of the horse boxes do
not apparently exceed eight feet, the horse box could
not have come in contact with the signal box, if it
had not previously been shifted on its frame by the
collision with the tender of the light engine.